04 April 2019 UK Books

April 2019 : New Titles

A personal selection from a plethora of titles …

Fiction

You Will Be Safe Here

by Damian Barr

Bloomsbury is very excited about this one, the début novel from the author of the award-winning memoir Maggie & Me, about coming-of-age and coming out in Thatcher’s Britain. He is also, of course, well-known to the trade as the host of his eponymous Literary Salon. This is set in South Africa with a dual narrative: in 1901, at the height of the Second Boer War, when Sarah van der Watt and her son have been taken by force to Bloemfontein Concentration Camp; and in 2010, when 16-year-old Willem is deposited at the New Dawn Safari Training Camp by his mother and stepfather.

Bloomsbury Publishing, £16.99, 4th April 2019, 9781408886083

Arlette’s Story

by Angela Barton

Central France, 1940. When a young Jewish man, driven from his home by the Nazis, arrives at the family farm in Oradour-sur-Glane, Arlette realises that the war is closer than she ever thought.

Ruby Fiction, £7.99, 28th April 2019, 9781912550128

Island Song

by Madeleine Bunting

First novel from Bunting, a former Guardian columnist and non-fiction author, is set in occupied Guernsey in 1940, where recently married Helene must cope with her husband away fighting. Explores the moral complexities of war-time allegiances.

Granta Books, £12.99, 4th April 2019, 9781783784615

Cape May

by Chip Cheek

The Great Gatsby meets On Chesil Beach, says Orion of this 1957-set tale about a newly married couple, Henry and Effie, who encounter a glamourous new set while on their honeymoon: socialite Clara, wealthy playboy Max and his mysterious half-sister Alma, to whom Henry is irresistibly drawn…

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £14.99, 30th April 2019, 9781474609531

Between the Regions of Kindness

by Alice Jolly

Coventry, 1941. The morning after a savage night of bombing, 22-year-old Rose enters the remains of a house to find her best friend is dead-and makes a split-second decision that will be reverberate down the generations. From the author of Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile and the memoir Dead Babies and Seaside Towns.

Unbound, £8.99, 18th April 2019, 9781783524990

Paul Takes the Form of A Mortal Girl

by Andrea Lawlor

Transposes Virginia Woolf’s Orlando to 1990s San Francisco, where shapeshifting Paul Polydoris is able to transform his body at will for a series of adventures in this wild tale of transgender metamorphosis.

Picador, £14.99, 18th April 2019, 9781529007664

Machines Like Me

by Ian McEwan

Nothing was available to read in time for this preview, but as one of a handful of literary novelists with household-name status (he’s not pointless on “Pointless”), this will be a major publishing event. It is set in an alternative 1980s London where Britain has lost the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power, and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in AI. When drifter Charlie comes into money he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans.

Jonathan Cape, £18.99, 18th April 2019, 9781787331662

Non-fiction

100 Years, 100 Artworks: A History of Modern and
Contemporary Art

by Agnes Berecz

From Georgia O’Keeffe and Man Ray to Kara Walker and Ai Weiwei, this is a handsome showcase of the history of modern and contemporary art, charted through 100 of the most significant artworks of the past century, one for each year.

Prestel, £27.50, 8th April 2019, 9783791384849

Everything You Know About England is Wrong

by Matt Brown

Exploding a range of national myths, from the idea that there could be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, to the origin of the Cornish pasty (they might have been invented in London) and the stiff upper lip (an Americanism).

Batsford Ltd, £9.99, 4th April 2019, 9781849945233

Einstein’s Wife: The Real Story of Mileva Einstein-Maric

by Allen Esterson

Written in three parts, this debunks popular assertions of Einstein’s wife’s contribution to his discoveries, and seeks to answer questions about what role, if any, she played in his early work and success.

MIT Press, £0.00, 19th March 2019, 9780262039611

Ways of Hearing

by Damon Krukowski

Based on an acclaimed six-part podcast and modelled on John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, this aims to provide the general reader with a set of tools for critical listening in the digital age.

Embroidery projects inspired by the art of sashiko, the Japanese stitching technique that uses simple patterns to decorate or repair clothing and textiles.

Ilex, £12.99, 3rd January 2019, 9781781576922

Orexi!: Feasting at the Modern Greek Table

by Theo A. Michaels

Over 80 Greek-inspired recipes from the 2014 “Masterchef” semi-finalist, who grew up in a large Greek Cypriot family. He has also incorporated healthy ingredients, including halloumi, quinoa, cauliflower and turmeric, into classic dishes.

Ryland, Peters & Small Ltd, £16.99, 1st April 2019, 9781788790796

Baan: Recipes and stories from my Thai home

by Kay Plunkett-Hogge

Over 120 recipes collected by the author—who was born and raised in Bangkok—from friends, acquaintances and street-stall holders across Thailand, and including curries, stews, snacks, laarps and tums, and desserts.

More than 50 crops, 100 skills and 24 self-contained projects which will enhance every gardener’s ability to grow their own food.

Aurum Press, £18.99, 1st April 2019, 9781781318454

Infinite Powers: The Story of Calculus – The Language of
the Universe

by Steven Strogatz (Author)

US mathematics professor tells the thrilling story of calculus—”mathematics’ greatest idea”—without which there would be no computers, no microwave ovens, GPS or space travel.

Atlantic Books, £20.00, 6th May 2019, 9781786492944

A Farmer’s Diary: A Year at High House Farm

by Sally Urwin

The author and her husband own High House Farm in Northumberland. From stock sales to lambing sheds, and out in the fields in driving snow and on hot summer days, this is Urwin’s brutally honest yet charming account of farming life, revealing the highs, lows and hard, hard work involved in making a living from the land.

Profile Books Ltd, £14.99, 4th April 2019, 9781788160698

Paperbacks : Fiction

Munmun

by Jesse Andrews

In an alternate reality, people’s size is proportionate to their wealth: the poorest are the size of rats, and billionaires are the size of skyscrapers.

Allen & Unwin, £7.99, 4th April 2019, 9781911630128

The Consolation of Maps

by Thomas Bourke

Antiquarian cartographer Theodora Appel has another obsession as well as maps-one which will threaten her company.

riverrun, £8.99, 18th April 2019, 9781786487605

Warlight

by Michael Ondaatje

The Man Booker-longlisted story of two children, seemingly abandoned by their parents and left in the care of the enigmatic Moth, in a London reeling from the Blitz.

Undivided

A memoir of how the popular Christian musician came out as gay and lost her livelihood, but found peace.

William Collins, £8.99, 18th March 2019, 9780008182168

The Death of Hitler: The Final Word on the Ultimate Cold Case: The Search for Hitler’s Body

by Jean-Christophe Brisard

Previously unseen Soviet archives contribute to this new account of the last days in Hitler’s bunker.

Hodder Paperback, £9.99, 4th April 2019, 9781473686540

The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History

by David Edgerton

An economic and political history of 20th-century Britain, called “fierce and dazzling” by the Guardian.

Penguin Books Ltd, £12.99, 4th April 2019, 9780141975979

Returning to Reims

by Didier Eribon

A “huge” bestseller in France and Germany, where Penguin says it has sold 100,000 copies, this is the sociologist’s account of his return to the town he grew up in after a 30-year absence. “A brilliant little book… a touching memoir of sexual awakening and a gallery of philosophical ideas and characters,” said the Observer.

Penguin Books Ltd, £9.99, 4th April 2019, 9780141987996

Happiness in This Life: A Passionate Meditation on Material Existence and the Meaning of Life

by Pope Francis

The Pope’s meditation on the concept of the pursuit of happiness, and how we can bring meaning and purpose to our lives.

Bluebird, £8.99, 4th April 2019, 9781509886586

What We Have Lost: The Dismantling of Great Britain

by James Hamilton-Paterson

An analysis of Britain’s lost industrial and technological civilisation, and how we moved from being a nation of producers to one of consumers and financial middlemen.

Head of Zeus, £9.99, 4th April 2019, 9781784972363

Paul Simon: The Life

by Robert Hilburn

This biography of Paul Simon, written after more than 60 hours of interviews with the musician, was a Times book of the year.

Simon & Schuster Ltd, £10.99, 4th April 2019, 9781471174209

The Tyranny of Metrics

by Jerry Z. Muller

A new preface from the author for the paperback of this look at how the obsession with quantifying human performance is threatening the quality of our lives.

Princeton University Press, £13.99, 30th April 2019, 9780691191911

Brainstorm: Detective Stories From the World of Neurology

by Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan

The neurologist examines some of the strangest symptoms patients have exhibited, from a man who sees cartoon characters, to a girl whose world turns Alice in Wonderland. Great reviews; Vintage says the hardback has sold 5,000 copies to date. O’Sullivan’s previous book, It’s All In Your Head, sold 30,000 copies, says the publisher, and won the Wellcome Book Prize.